How Long?

 

“An oracle concerning Dumah.

 

Someone is calling from the mountains of Edom 

‘Night watchman! How long will the darkness last?

How long will the darkness last?’

 

The night watchman calls back,

‘Morning is coming,

But for awhile it will be night.

Keep asking.’”  —Isaiah 21:11,12

 

“Dumah”—the empty spaces of the desert, emblematic of the empty places in our hearts.

 

The ancient question: “How long will the darkness last?”  

 

The prophet answers, “Morning is coming, but for awhile it will be night. Keep asking….” (vs. 12).

 

God’s program is carried forward, not by quantum leaps and bounds, but by the slow, steady movement of time. We must wait through the darkness till the end of time.

 

Waiting is the hardest of all disciplines—living in “faith and patience,” through long periods when God is strangely silent (Hebrews 6:12). 

 

But, though the night grows long, morning is sure to come. (“Is coming” is written in a Hebrew form that expresses certainty.) The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2), and the darkness will flee away. 

 

“Even so come Lord Jesus!” The only answer to earth’s troubles. 

 

David Roper

5.20.20

Just for You: Winsome Words—

From Carolyn

I confess. I do love words. They convey, clarify, add color and are just plain intriguing to me. This morning as I prayed through a prayer in The Valley of Vision some words enthralled me as they pointed not only to the Lord but to a way for me to go about my day. Some of these words were: dawn, rejoicing, allure, delight, joy, sparkle, sunbeam, happy, praise, grace, guest and humility. 

I invite you to pray this prayer and especially notice the words I have mentioned. I found it both bracing and challenging to make this prayer my own. Perhaps you would like make this a prayer for yourself today.

FATHER OF JESUS,

Dawn returns, but without thy light within no outward light can profit. 

Give me the saving lamp of thy Spirit that I may see thee, the God of my salvation, the delight of my soul, rejoicing over me in love.
I commend my heart to thy watchful care, for I know its treachery and power;
Guard its every portal from the wily enemy,
Give me quick discernment of his deadly arts,
Help me to recognize his bold disguise as an angel of light, and bid him begone.

May my words and works allure others to the highest walks of faith and love!
May loiterers be quickened to greater diligence by my example.
May worldlings be won to delight in acquaintance with thee!
May the timid and irresolute be warned of coming doom by my zeal for Jesus!

Cause me to be a mirror of thy grace, to show others the joy of thy service.
May my lips be well-tuned cymbals sounding thy praise,
Let a halo of heavenly-mindedness sparkle around me and a light of kindness sunbeam my path.

Teach me the happy art of attending to things temporal with a mind intent on things eternal.
Send me forth to have compassion on the ignorant and miserable.
Help me to walk as Jesus walked, my only Saviour and perfect model, his mind my inward guest, his meekness my covering garb.

Let my happy place be amongst the poor in spirit, my delight the gentle ranks of the meek.
Let me always esteem others better than myself, and find true humility in heirdom to two worlds.

***
Lord, may we each sparkle in joyful service to you today so that we can allure (not harangue) others to you and your steadfast love. Thank you for Jesus and his love for each one.

As always, I welcome hearing your response to some part of this prayer.

A Song for God’s Children

17^th century theologian Isaac Watts, who wrote more than 750 hymns for the Church, also composed a delightful little song book for children entitled Divine Songs for Children. It's a collection of hymns for children of all ages—even grown-up children like you and me. Here’s one I came across this morning that seems especially appropriate today.

Let dogs delight to bark and bite,    

For God hath made them so;     

Let bears and lions growl and fight,     

For ‘tis their nature too.     

But, children, you should never let     

Such angry passions rise;     

Your little hands were never made     

To tear each other’s eyes.     

Let love thro all your actions run,     

And all your words be mild;     

Live like the blessed Virgin’s son,     

That sweet and lovely child.     

His soul was gentle as a lamb;     

And as his stature grew,     

He grew in favor both with man,     

And God his father too.     

Now, Lord of all, he reigns above,     

And from his heav’nly throne     

He sees when children dwell in love,     

And marks them as his own.

David Roper

7.20.20 

Content

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” —Blaise Pascal, Pensées

George Herbert, in a poem entitled “Content” wrote this:

Peace mutt’ring thoughts, and do not grudge to keep

                   Within the walls of your own breast:

Who cannot on his own bed sweetly sleep,

                   Can on anothers’ hardly rest.

Gad not abroad at ev’ry quest and call

                   Of an untrained hope or passion.

To court each place or fortune that doth fall,

                   Is wantonnesse in contemplation. 

I love the open road, “the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!” (The Wind in the Willows).

But, given my advanced age and decrepitude I must not “gad” about in this pandemic-stricken world, driven by the “quest and call of untaimed hope or passion.” That would be “wantoness,” an unwillingness to rest in God’s wisdom and love. I must learn to be content

Paul writes, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things bu the one who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13)

Paul borrowed the Greek word translated "content" 
in the text above from the Stoics. It suggests a quiet tranquility that endures despite the vicissitudes  of life. It’s a good word, one that can mark us as centers of peace in the midst of pandemics and other pandemonia. It comes from “the one who strengthens (us).”

Contentment, like every other virtue, comes from God. You have to ask for it all day long.

David Roper

7.16.20

The Gift

“Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.  And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple;  who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, ‘Look at us.’ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk’” (Acts 3:1-6).

Peter and John, upon entering the temple, saw a man panhandling at the gate. Peter stopped and “stared” at him. The man, trodden down, unable to meet Peter’s gaze, looked away. “Look at us,” Peter said. “So the [man] gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them."

The man expected money, of course, but Peter, who didn’t have two drachma to rub together, gave him something far better: Speaking in Jesus’ name he gave him a new lease on life. 

The streets are full of poverty-stricken people—begging. Some are poor in dollars and cents; others in faith, hope and love. But I don’t always see them.

More’s the pity, for I have a gift to give that keeps on giving: New life in Jesus’ name.

David Roper

7.17.20

Other thoughts on manner and message…

Lord, how can man [speak] thy eternal word? 

He is brittle, crazy (distorted) glass:

Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford 

This glorious and transcendent place,  

To be a window, through thy grace. 

but when thou dost anneal (burn) in glass thy story, 

Making thy life to shine within 

The holy [speaker’s]; then the light and glory 

More rev’rend grows, and more doth win: 

which else shows watrish, bleak, and thin.

Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one 

when they combine and mingle, bring 

A strong regard and awe: but speech alone 

Doth vanish like a flaring thing, 

And in the ear, not conscience ring.

—George Herbert, “The Window”

The combination of message and manner (“doctrine and life”) is like light shining through a lovely stained-glass window: the glass makes the light more awe-inspiring. 

When the word is “speech alone”— a message delivered apart from our Lord’s gracious manner “shining through”—it is "waterish, weak and thin.” Our neighbors may hear it “in the ear,” but it does not ring true.

So Peter writes, “Honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). In that way, the message "more rev’rend grows, and more doth win."

Thus, it seams, the good news only sounds good when it’s announced with good manners.

David Roper

7.11.20

Perturbation!

Why is it that so often I return

From social converse with a spirit worn,

A lack, a disappointment—even a sting

Of shame, as for some low, unworthy thing? 

—George MacDonald

Paul writes, “Flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2;22-26).

“Youthful lusts” are not sexual lusts, but the passions of the young to engage in “foolish and ignorant disputes”—to wrangle and worry themselves and others with their disputations.

Rather, we should seek righteousness, faith, love and peace as the outcome of every conversation. We should ask ourselves, as we step away from every encounter: “To what extent have my words nudged my brother or sister toward  righteousness, faith, love and peace, or have they added to the sum total of unrest and rancor in the world.”

In a word, we must not “strive”—a Greek term that refers to fist-fights or word-fights depending on the context. We must be knowledgeable (able to teach), but we must also be kind and gentle (the Greek word, epios, means both), patient and humble in our demeanor. If others are delivered from error, it will only be because we have been kind, gentle, patient and humble. The medium as well as the message is the message. 

And, in all our conversations we must bear in mind that those who oppose the truth (as we see it) are not our enemies, but, if deceived, are victims of Satan, our true enemy, who has “taken them captive to do his will.” 

Or it may be—perish the thought—that we’ve been duped as well. 

David Roper 

July 8, 2020